Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Temper
    Temper
    Temper
    Audiobook9 hours

    Temper

    Written by Layne Fargo

    Narrated by Hillary Huber and Jayme Mattler

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    For fans of the high-stakes tension of the New York Times bestsellers Luckiest Girl Alive and The Lying Game, comes “a brilliantly paced thriller that gets under your skin in the best possible way” (Megan Collins, author of The Winter Sister) about female ambition and what happens when fake violence draws real blood.

    After years of struggling in the Chicago theater scene, ambitious actress Kira Rascher finally lands the role of a lifetime. The catch? The mercurial Malcolm Mercer is the director and he’s known for pushing his performers past their limits—on stage and off.

    Kira’s convinced she can handle Malcolm, but the theater’s cofounder, Joanna Cuyler, is another story. Joanna sees Kira as a threat—to her own thwarted artistic ambitions, her twisted relationship with Malcolm, and the shocking secret she’s keeping about the upcoming production. But as opening night draws near, Kira and Joanna both come to the realization that Malcolm’s dangerous extremes are nothing compared to what they’re capable of themselves.

    An edgy, addictive, and fiendishly clever tale of ambition, deceit, and power suited for fans of the film Black Swan, Temper “revels in its mind games, delivering twist after twist as it races toward a Shakespearian climax. The final page will leave you gasping” (Amy Gentry, author of Last Woman Standing).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 2, 2019
    ISBN9781508286608
    Author

    Layne Fargo

    Layne Fargo is the author of the thrillers Temper and They Never Learn. She’s a Pitch Wars mentor, Vice President of the Chicagoland chapter of Sisters in Crime, and the cocreator of the podcast Unlikeable Female Characters. Layne lives in Chicago with her partner and their pets.

    Related to Temper

    Related audiobooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Sexual Tension

      Jun 5, 2023

      Sexual Tension
      13 min read

    • Article

      End of THE LINE

      Jan 13, 2021

      End of THE LINE
      3 min read

    • Article

      Disco Elysium

      Oct 8, 2019

      Disco Elysium
      2 min read

    • Article

      Never Meet YOUR HEROES?

      Apr 2, 2020

      Never Meet YOUR HEROES?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Aubrey Plaza: ‘I’m Literally Just Trying To Be Normal. But I Can’t Do It’

      Apr 22, 2021

      Aubrey Plaza knows people expect her to do “the Aubrey Plaza thing”. Deadpan voice. Wide eyes. A mocking smile. All of it dripping with sarcasm. “It’s a lifelong pickle that I’ve found myself in,” says the star of Parks and Recreation over Zoom from

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Escaped Jaguar

      May 9, 2019

      The Escaped Jaguar
      5 min read

    • Article

      Disco Elysium

      Sep 19, 2019

      Disco Elysium
      2 min read

    • Article

      ALZHEIMER’S My Dog & Me

      Dec 9, 2019

      ALZHEIMER’S My Dog & Me
      3 min read

    • Article

      It's Crying Time

      Nov 15, 2023

      I was about 13, on a sofa in front of the television on a wet Saturday afternoon. I was carelessly able to do that once – sigh. I was watching a black-and-white film. Or maybe the TV was black-and-white – probably. It was a story about a nanny caring

      4 min read

    • Article

      Actor

      Apr 18, 2024

      Actor
      2 min read

    • Article

      ALZHEIMER’S My Dog & Me

      Jul 4, 2019

      ALZHEIMER’S My Dog & Me
      3 min read

    • Article

      Child Star

      Oct 16, 2020

      Child Star
      2 min read

    • Article

      Oh No

      Jul 1, 2018

      Because past the angel at the gate, oh can turn like that, go under, straight into poetry. Here’s the god’s honest: a moment of calm recently came to me, so close to sleep it was sleep. In my dream I saw a girl whose dark t-shirt read: All is Failure

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Reluctant Fish Footman

      Jul 1, 2023

      The Reluctant Fish Footman
      6 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Have A Bird

      Aug 2, 2020

      There are so many rites of passage you’ve already missed out on, and the school ball is destined to become another item on that ever-growing list. You try to delay the inevitable until every breath from your lungs sounds as if cystic fibrosis is cack

      12 min read

    • Article

      Red Pill

      Oct 1, 2021

      Red Pill
      5 min read

    • Article

      Haunted

      Sep 27, 2023

      Haunted
      6 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      May 1, 2019

      We found ourselves to be quite fondof the ad campaignundermining late-stage capitalism: how the sprightly old womankept bursting into private conversationsat the candlelit restaurant and shouting, You can’t eat nickels!!and then doing that little hip

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Time I Wrote a Sitcom For Disney

      Feb 24, 2017

      When I recently heard that Raven Symoné would be reprising her role on a spinoff of the sitcom That’s So Raven, I thought it was some kind of mistake. After I went online to verify and found that it was true, I had little choice but to make myself a

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Hard Man To Forget

      Jan 8, 2024

      A Hard Man To Forget
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Temper

    3.5/5

    102 ratings5 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      I loved They Never Learn by this author, this one however, was described as a thriller. It absolutely is not a thriller, it’s more of an angsty, needy high school drama.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      An absolutely brilliant novel about the intense emotional turmoil behind the scenes of a small theatre production. But mainly just the tension that grows and intensifies continuously between the characters through the entire novel. Truly incredible. I personally loved it!!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Ehhh….. great writing definitely, in an objective way I guess, but the story didn’t go anywhere really? There’s no actual purpose to this book

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Temper is not at all the thriller I expected. In fact, it's not a thriller at all, but more of a highly sexualized, dramatic study of dysfunctional characters. So here's the thing: If you enjoy books like 50 Shades, where sex is used as a warped kind of weapon and the male lead gets his rocks off by breaking the will of women, you might love this book. I intensely disliked 50 Shades, and I disliked this one only a little less than that.The entire plot hinges on readers buying into Malcolm being a man of intense magnetism. And herein lies the next problem. I never felt it. Not even a little bit. He's a small-time stage actor, so there's no celebrity factor. He's rude, demanding, difficult, spoiled. He has no wealth. I saw absolutely nothing that would make women - and men - drop at his feet as if he's a king offering the key to the kingdom. And yet, they all did. Every single one of the characters bent to his will, never questioning his warped demands. And, finally, absolutely nothing about the story surprised me. We ended how and where I expected, because the entire story led exactly there.As you can tell, this book was not for me. But the writing is good and the author does touch on some important issues. Definitely try it if this sort of story appeals to you.*I received this book from the publisher via a Goodreads giveaway.*
    • 5/5
      Thank you, Goodreads, for my complimentary review copy.The apt title sets the tone and is also the name of the play at the heart of this novel. I enjoy the theater, but I had no clue how much work went into the prep and/or the action behind the scenes. This provided a fascinating glimpse.Set in Chicago’s theater world, Fargo’s debut novel centers around protagonist, Kira, an aspiring actress, and Joanna, co-founder of the Indifferent Honest Theater Company. The short chapters alternate from the perspectives of these two characters. Both are ambitious and passionate about their career...and about the devastatingly handsome and charismatic Malcolm Mercer(“Mal”).Mercurial, manipulative, dedicated, and demanding, Mal is a man of extremes. He pushes himself and those in his life to the breaking point. He not only started the theater with Joanna, but also directs and plays the lead in every production. And, further complicating matters, he and Joanna live together. But, their exact relationship is ambiguous.Adding to the mix are Spence (Kira’s roommate), Bryn (theater intern), Rob (journalist), and finally Jason(stage actor). Although these are supporting characters, they are well fleshed-out. They share a history with Kira, Joanna, and Mal. Their relationship dynamics are no less provocative than Temper itself.Overall, I loved this book. It had a compelling storyline, great character development (alternating voices greatly help with that), and good plot twists. And that ending...definitely didn’t see that coming! I greatly look forward to reading more from this author.